Nets Notebook: Brooklyn waives Armoni Brooks, Trendon Watford and Harry Giles III now fully guaranteed

While two way players can be signed through March 3, NBA teams had until Sunday at 5 p.m. to waive players on partial or non guaranteed deals so they can clear waivers by January 10, when all contracts become fully guaranteed. The requested waivers on two way guard Armoni Brooks on Saturday, reducing the team’s roster to 17 players, including two two way players in second round pick Jalen Wilson and Keon Johnson.

“Just talking with Sean [Marks], the reason for it was just to create some flexibility for us,” head coach Jaque Vaughn said. Ahead of Sunday’s game against the Portland Trail Blazers at Barclays Center, Vaughn announced that Trendon Watford and Harry Giles III — both on partially guaranteed minimum deals — will be playing on fully guaranteed contracts for the rest of the season.

Watford will now make a total of this season while Giles will earn , according to Spotrac. “Dinner is on those two,” Vaughn said. “They’ll be with us.” Watford, who faced his former team on Sunday, has averaged 6.5 points, 3.3 rebounds and 1.8 assists across his first 25 appearances this season, though the 23 year old has not had a consistent role in Vaughn’s rotation.

Giles, 25, has averaged 4.1 points and 1.7 rebounds in 10 appearances entering Sunday. Brooks, who appeared in 10 games for the Nets this season, averaged 4.2 points while shooting 32.6% from the field and 34.4% from deep. He signed with Brooklyn last offseason after a Summer League run in which he averaged 17.8 points per game.

“AB is an incredible human being, great family man, I loved having him in the locker room. I always remember that game in Miami, him being a part of that comeback, drawing up some ATOs for him, having the ability and the confidence in him to make shots. And so he’ll be in this league.” Sunday marked the sixth straight game in which Vaughn went with a starting lineup of Spencer Dinwiddie, Mikal Bridges, Dorian Finney Smith, Cam Johnson and Nic Claxton.

The results have been mixed, to say the least, but Vaughn does have a larger sample size to evaluate at this point compared to earlier in the season. “I think we’ve really created shots for each other on the offensive end of the floor,” Vaughn said. “The biggest glaring hole defensively is being able to change up different coverages and then the rebounding piece.

We had 51 rebounds the other night against the Thunder. And so, tough to have that segment of changing the lineup and playing Oklahoma City twice, Houston, and New Orleans, so it gives us a chance against a high barometer to see where we still need to make some adjustments.” Of course, Sunday’s game also marked Cam Thomas’ sixth straight game as a reserve after he started 20 of the first 22 games he has been available to play in.

Things got rough for the 22 year old in recent weeks from a scoring standpoint, as he entered 0 of 18 from the field in his previous two outings. However, Thomas bounced back in a major way, starting 4 of 4 from the field and finishing with 19 points on 6 of 14 shooting in 24 minutes. “I just think you see the maturity of Cam Thomas,” Vaughn said.

“The ability to accept that move was made for the benefit of the team and he was completely on board with it. I’ve seen more growth from him than ever before.” The Nets had a defensive rating of 117.0 entering Sunday’s game, which ranks 24th in the league Their defensive struggles this season have been but Vaughn told reporters he is not planning to scale back or simplify the team’s current defensive schemes.

“I’m probably trending the other direction,” Vaughn said. “I think we’ve had some gains definitely made. I think we tried more things vs. Oklahoma City this past game, than anytime on the fly throughout the course of the season. And to see our guys be able to react and respond was something that I had been wanting to see.

And guys had confidence in it, I think they’re understanding why we’re doing it with different lineups. Covering for people in different situations provides some opportunity to create opportunities for turnovers and other situations and create variety with our group. We got a group that — one defense won’t suit this group because different individuals have strengths and so we’re trying to use everyone’s strengths throughout the course of the game by having multiple defenses.”.